The EIT Community is home to nine Knowledge and Innovation Communities (KICs) – public and private partnerships that house over 2 400 partners, from research, academia and business.
EIT’s Knowledge and Innovation Communities are instrumental in leveraging their network and expertise to solve pressing global challenges in the areas of climate, cultural heritage, digtialisation, energy, food, health, raw materials, manufacturing, and urban mobility,
An independent review recently carried out on five KICs, have noted many success for the innovation communities. Among other things, how the KICs contribute to the EU’s sustainability goals, have established innovation ecosystems of their own across Europe, and have introduced gender-sensitive measures.
Among the improvements to be made, the consultants recommend that one or two KICs might review how revenue is generated, consider differing options on how to retain and attract partners, and continue to ensure their calls remain open.
The EIT Regulation requires the EIT to organise continuous monitoring and periodic external evaluations of each KIC. This includes their progress towards financial sustainability, cost-efficiency, openness to new members, results and impact. All of the reviews described below were carried out by independent consultants and provide an assessment of their progress. In the case of the three-year reviews, the independent consultants also provide recommendations for improvement.
EIT Climate-KIC, EIT Digital and EIT InnoEnergy form the EIT’s first-wave of KICs. 2024 marks 15 years of supported for the first three KICs.
EIT Climate-KIC was established to address climate change mitigation and adaptation, notably to accelerate the transition towards a decarbonised and resilient society through innovation. EIT Climate-KIC has become the world’s largest climate-focused acceleration programme, gathering around 450 partners and incubating over 2 100 climate-positive companies, attracting over EUR 2 billion in capital
EIT Knowledge and Innovation Communities (KICs) receive positive reviews | EIT (europa.eu)